F1:Monza Part One - Red Bull vs. The World...

Hey yo'!

I'm getting this in nice and early, rather than peg it to the start of the review of today's race (for 'tis Sunday UK time, bro's!), to save time when writing my detailed analysis...


QUALIFYING

This was definitely one that was looking like all eyes were going to be on Lewis Hamilton, for having clocked up the poles like he has recently, one would be a fool to bet against him, right?

Before that though, it was quite amazing hearing from one John Surtees, the legendary rider to have been the only one to have won a world championship on two wheels, then swapped them for four a few years later to do the very same again... hearing him talk about the experiences from his day, like riding the now infamous part of the old Monza circuit that looks akin to the groundwork that supports rollercoaster pieces!

Not today, bro's, but more on that to come...

Q1 was of little surprise that the likes of Seb Vettel, Nico Rosberg & Lewis Hamilton were right up there from the start of qualifying, though the biggest surprise for me was Jean-Eric Vergne, partner to newly promoted for 2014 Red Bull driver, Daniel Ricciardo, making up such ground that he was only .3 of a second off the pace. Could this be the start of an upset in the making?

It was anybody's guess really, as the likes of Sergio 'Checo' Perez, Ricciardo himself and of course Fernando Alonso, last time out's driver of the day, all pushing for places behind them. Romain Grosjean was next followed closely by Jenson Button, who must've been relieved to make it through the first part of qualifying along with his team-mate, Perez.

The man who would be the one to watch, though, was none of these... it was Nico Hulkenberg who would be the fly in the ointment!

Thus brings us to the end of Q1.

Q2 - Early on, after his impressive performance at Belgium, Fernando Alonso was the man to set the early pace, though because of his Italian heritage, Daniel Ricciardo would be the first one out on track to no avail as he was soon outdone by both Nico Rosberg & the Ferrari of Felipe Massa.

Having clocked around 12 minutes of time in Q2 whilst sitting in the garages, the two Red Bull Racing cars came out and this is where things got interesting, because with the confidence Vettel was clearly driving with, he was bound to make an early statement for pole position, wasn't he?

Mark Webber was actually the one to be the first Red Bull on pole this time out, though that does not last as he is once again outdone by his team-mate, whilst early signs are that his car does have the pace of the championship leader's, fortunately.

The shocks came thick and fast as that clock hit 'zero' with Paul Di Resta, the two Lotuses of Grosjean & Kimi Räikkönen along with Lewis Hamilton all missing out on a spot in Q3! WHOA!!!

This was the first time since 2010, that Hamilton had failed to qualify for Q3 and afterwards he was clearly super critical of his performance in that final stint, even though the Force India of Adrian Sutil clearly did appear to impede him somewhat as the final seconds ticked down (ED - and as this article proves, it was clearly too much for the stewards to sit back and do nothing, so Sutil gets a 3 place grid penalty for the race).

So that meant that a starting trio of Vettel, Alonso & Webber was very formidable as far as the championship hopes of Räikkönen went, after slipping to fourth in the standings currently.

It was nice to hear from a pleased Christian Horner, who was clearly impressed with the form of his team as things got down to the serious business of final qualifying.

Q3 - Things started off with quite a feisty exchange between Alonso & his team as he told them, in Italian (a language which he is fluent in, of course being part of an Italian team!) that they were idiots for leaving too much of a gap to Massa, preventing him from getting a tow to slingshot himself onto pole position.

Afterwards, it was confirmed that the word Alonso used was 'genius' not 'idiot', though the two apparently are similar, according to him. I've done some basic research for this but can neither back it up nor deny it as I do not speak much Italian.

This was a move that was clearly misconstrued by the journalist that E.J. spoke to, as he implied that things were seriously starting to get awry within the Ferrari camp leading him to consider that maybe he too, like Räikkönen, was going to take a sabbatical next year.

Aside from this, Mark Webber was showing himself to be a serious pole contender despite never having clocked a single one at Monza, who was followed by Rosberg, before the pair of them were split by the two Ferraris and of course it looked like the word was indeed 'genius' at this point!

Then came Vettel!

He went faster than the lot of them, whilst Massa was beaten by Ricciardo who was proving evermore the promising youngster with a 2-tenth gap over him.

Vergne this time could only manage tenth position as the front row of the grid started out as a Red Bull lockout for the twentieth time in the Vettel/Webber partnership and of course the fiftieth time that RBR have snatched pole position since their inclusion into the world of Formula One.

The real star of Q3 though, was definitely Nico Hulkenberg as he blitzed the competition to narrowly pip Rosberg into 3rd position and one of the highest ever starts for a Sauber driver.

What would the race entail? Well, that one's for the next segment and the race itself so stick around to find out...

Stick around because the review contines, after the jump --->